This Is The Farm Blog

Uh - Wisconsin is closed now. We're preparing for 16 inches of snow. It has become alarmist. People are getting duct tape and plastic. Oh wait, that's for acts of terrorism...they're get Jimmy Dean Sausage and Chocolate pancakes on a stick in case they're stranded at home. The snow is coming down very hard.

The radio announcer has stopped playing music and is reading cancellations...very slowly, in a deep voice...as he always does; "Monroe FFA Pancake Breakfast, CANCELLED. Judy and Bob Smtih's 50th anniversary party, CANCELLED. 1st Trinity Lutheran Church Service and Bible Study, CANCELLED. Monroe versus Darlington Girls Basketball Game, CANCELLED." The list goes on and on.

We've enclosed all of our vehicles in our variety of dilapidated sheds. We're hunkered down. This better be good. 

Posted by jackie at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And so I begin my rant on food. Which will go on for a very long time. I have been having trouble trying to decide where to begin. First, I am unclear as to why I am obsessed with the food that people eat. I am more obessed with the collective 'people' than myself. I think I have partially decided the reasons for my obession with what we are eating.

It isn't just food. Its greed. I don't like greedy behavior. I don't like the fanatic consumerism that has developed in my lifetime. The dollar store mentality. Cheaper more-cheaper more. Or for the wealthy; more, more, more.  (This also explains why I sell vintage textiles, used items, recycled items that one cannot find in the dollar store, nor Target, nor Walmart.)

Food has become non food. Things that were something else like corn are now chicken nuggets. Sugar has been replaced almost completely by high fructose corn syrup.  Animals are literally tortured so that eggs can be 49 cents per dozen and chicken 49 cents per pound. 

You can actually purchase Jimmy Dean Chocalate Chip Pancakes and Sausage on a stick in the grocery store. This is old news of course thanks to Jon Stewart. Before he talked about it I screamed at Rich in the grocery store,"RICH YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS." and we couldn't believe our eyes.

So I can't quite figure out how to put my rant on food together. It is too big to be one rant. And it isn't a holier than thou rant either, I love Dorritos, White Castle, hot dogs and pizza. (I eat these things about once a month, for the record, and not all on the same day.)

Food should just be food. It shouldn't be highly processed and it shouldn't require factories and it shouldn't require an army of workers and barrels of petroleum to get to us.  It really shouldn't be all that fast either. If we don't have time to feed our families and ourselves, we ought to really look at our lifestyles and see what's going on. It shouldn't make us ill. It shouldn't drive the incidence of diabetes and heart disease to the highest levels known to mankind. It should just be food.

I have more to say on this. I hope all my thoughts can be organized by my personal neural network. Until then, eat local - eat food.

Posted by jackie at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every year since we've been farming at least 10 people ask, "What do you do in the winter with all that down time?"

Every year I answer the same, "Sit in front of the TV, watch Oprah and eat bon bons."

The 'winter' doesn't start for us until December. Markets aren't finished until the end of October. In November we pick up the pieces of what's been left behind and ignored for the entire spring and summer. We mow the lawn for the first time, for example. We put away the 50 or so hoses that feed our gardens. We plant garlic. We plant tulips. We clean up all the messes we've left behind all summer long. We chop down overgrown trees, bushes and weeds. November is as crazy as June. 

December rolls in and we often times give ourselves three or four minutes a day off. We raise livestock, not just tomatoes. In the summer, livestock feeds itself on pasture. In the winter, we roll in bales of hay. All the time. They eat fast.

The seed catalogs arrive in early January and it frightens us into creating a business plan for the coming season. We assess last year's crop profits. We pick and choose the items and varieties we want to sell in the upcoming season. We feed the animals. over and over again.

February has now arrived and we start talking with other farmers. We talk about how to sell goods to one another's customers. How to best distribute food. We go to farmer's market planning meetings. over and over again. We scramble to figure out where we'll house 150 hens, how we'll brood 1000 broilers at a time and how we'll keep up with the endless demand for lamb chops.  And we need another hoophouse. We have to plan to build it in March.  Oh and we still feed those sheep and chickens in the barnyard.

March brings seed starting and emergency set up of greenhouses, buildings and what not. Because we've spent out winter eating bon bons and watching TV - we're just never ready.  

Posted by jackie at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The last three days have been the kind of days that make you wonder why the entire population of the United States is not crammed into Florida and Arizona. The high temp yesterday was a whopping 1 degree. We don't live in Fargo for Peet's sake - this is southern Wisconsin where global warming has prevented day time temps from dropping below 32 degrees, and winters now go by with only a few inches of snow.

We've gotten very spoiled by El Nino and El Nina - whichever makes it warmer. For three solid days it has been below zero. Lambs have spent their nights in our basement. I get up and get two full sets of clothing. Two pair of pants. Five or six shirts. Two pair of socks (unless the really good ones we splurged on this year are clean, then its only one.) If there were a way to wear two pair of shoes, I would. And that's just to stay in the house.

To go outside one has to wear a sort of brownish spacesuit looking thing made by Carharrt or Walls. That's over the whole double outfit. I look so hot in triple layers. Totally hot.

So tomorrow, it is supposed to warm up to 12 degrees and be sunny. We are all very excited about this. Today, on top of the artic chill, mother nature dropped 5 inches of snow on us in just under 3 hours. My Jeep was very excited to ramble about, but the rest of us have had enough winter.

Wow - what happened to that tropical vacation anyway? This is punishment for it I am sure. 

Posted by jackie at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)